Monday, April 28, 2008

I got to visit Grace a couple of times last week and thought i'd share some of the pics.
I didn't actually put pictures from the same visit together, but on the first day, although Grace still had some tubes in her nose, she was so alert and happy! It was amazing. She was so beautiful. And it was really nice being able to interact with her.
The second time i visited was with Anya and Aaron. Unfortunately, it was rather late and i needed to get the kids to bed so we weren't able to stay all that long. And although Grace had no tubes this time, it was her first night out of the PICU and she started getting a little fussy as we were getting ready to leave.
Of course Anya and Aaron were thrilled to visit with Grace. Aaron wanted to rock the little bouncy chair and Anya just wanted to stand there and look at her. Actually, she wanted to hold her hand and give her a kiss, but we told her she could kiss Grace's cute little feet instead. She seemed okay with that.
While no one ever tells me anything, i hear that Topher and Alysia might actually be able to take her home soon. And while i'm sure everyone's excited, i can imagine a little bit of terror and stressed mixed in. Heck, i was terrified to take home a perfectly healthy baby! (I still can't believe no one stopped me)! So i'm sure the extra prayers in behalf of little grace and her parents will continue to be appreciated.
Ya know... If i can get my sisters to keep having regularly spaced babies maybe i can placate my kids and Jennifer with other people's babies. Or it could just backfire and Jen will want more kids now. Doh!
Hopefully, now that i've posted some more pictures of Grace i'll be allowed to visit again. Hopefully Emily doesn't get any ideas, she might not let me visit either until i post some pictures of her famiy.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Today is Jennifer's 30th birthday, can you believe it?! i thought i'd celebrate in the blogiverse by posting some cute pics of Jen through the ages... Well, at least the ages that i have digital pictures for.This is Jen... before i married her. Isn't she cute? i don't know how old she was, i'm thinking the 80ies though.Here she is in Alaska somehwere sometime. I'm thinking early college or late high school. But i think it's easily one of her cutest pictures.Philmont Scout Ranch, the summer before we met i think. So that would make it 1999 maybe? Finally, after 8 years, she doesn't go on and on about it anymore. Actually, i love her Philmont stories, and look at her, doesn't she look great? I think the time she spent at Philmont is probably one of the happiest times of her life. Can you blame me for falling in love with a girl who had spent the whole summer hiking around?I think this is Emily's wedding reception, so it must have been some time shortly after we got married, oh look, i inlcuded the date in the file name, it was July of 2001. Smokin'!i skipped a few years simply to try and keep this post at a reasonable length. This is June of 2004 on the Slickrock trail in Moab. My little mountainbiker. i was not only impressed that she even tried it in the first place, but that she did AWESOME!July of 2004. My climbing partner. All the pictures i have of her actually climbing tend to be butt shots and i wasn't sure she'd appreciate that. But inspite of her semi-fear of heights, she has always been willing to go climbing with me. Isn't she great?Here we are in Zion National Park in Sept. of 2004. If i could, i would include all the pictures i have of her hiking, but i won't do that to you. Not because she's not cute and you wouldn't like to see more pictures of her, but because you want to finish reading this some time. She is always willing and able to go hiking with me, even if it means dragging heavy kids around with us (she carries the babies too, ya know).November of 2004. This photo illustrates a number of Jennifer's qualities. #1, if she's not cooking, cleaning or otherwise taking care of her family (or blogging now), she's got a book in her hands. #2, she takes great care not only of our kids (kid, at the time), but of our nephews (and nieces) too. And finally, #3, this photo was taken in Vegas while visiting my sister, she's always willing to go and visit family with me, even if they live 5+ hours away.May of 2005. Jennifer is a wonderful gardener! She always makes sure our home is surrouned by flowers and that we do our best to get a garden in. She makes sure we're healthy and, as cheesy as it sounds, doing our best to live in a sort of harmony with the planet.June of 2005. My wife will try just about anything, even barell racing! She's not a scaredy-cat (except when i try to scare her) and i think she really does great at the things she attempts.I couldn't resist; here's another hiking picture from October of 2005. But this wasn't any old hike, this was the "hike". Ask her about it, she'll tell you (it involved lots of mud). But at least she did it once, right?November of 2006, taking care of our baby. Plus, she's beautiful!And look, she's a model too! With very pretty brown eyes.Did i mention she's S-E-X-X-Y (sung to the similarly titled TMBG song).July of 2007. Not just a great wife, but a wonderful mother!I know, i know. I said i wouldn't do anymore, but look, here she's taking our kid hiking too! And she likes going to my family reunions with me (July 2007).August of 2008. Look, she even left a motorcycle gang for me. Err, no wait. She joined one for me. And she does a pretty good job of humoring her husband (by letting him but all sorts of toys).Do i need to even say anything here? (Dec. 2007).She does a great job keeping everyone posted on our happenings through her blog. (Granted, she doesn't look at that happy about it; probably has something to do with Aaron on her desk).She is a wonderful helper for me! Whenever i have a project in or around the house the requires or could use more than one pair of (adult) hands, she's always there to help with a smile on her face.She's always super cute with the kids. She plays with them and makes sure they're happy!I just can't say it enough: Jennifer is wonderful! I'm glad i get to celebrate her birthdays with her. And if you can't tell, she only seems to get more beautiful with every year. Happy Birthday honey!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Day two with the Byingtons... After church and all that on Easter Sunday we headed over to the Byingtons to take some more pics of the baby in an environment a little more conducive to the creation of baby smiles, or at least not so conducive to unhappy babies.
They had some large west-facing windows that let in the setting sun and really provided some great light. (Incidentally, other than open shade, cloudy days and a dedicated portrait studio, light coming through windows like this provides some of the best portrait lighting).
Kaia Avi was a lot happier (for the most part) to be photographed in the comfort and warmth of her own home. And Julissa & Scott had a variety of outfits and backgrounds prepared for her.
Plus Scott, Jen and Julissa were all great reflector-holders.
I couldn't decide which of these two pictures i liked better; i always have a tough time deciding between black and white and color. I just like color.
Probably a good thing you can't see her face here, she wasn't too happy.
This is Scott and Julissa's little neice, i think. I was testing my camera settings and the light, but she kept making cute faces. Oh, and don't forget that you can see the rest of the pictures from this shoot on my website at http://alanjphoto.com.
These last three are probably my favorites. The bottom one looks like she's belting out some opera. And no, she's not screaming, she's yawning. And it's funny, because i got a lot of cute pictures of her yawning, and more often than not, when i look at them, i have to yawn.

"One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said. "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late."